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RJO Produce Expands ‘Bird Dog’ Scoring System

RJO Produce Marketing has taken its Bird Dog quality-control technology to the next level with enhanced capabilities to enable retail produce buyers to have confidence in the value proposition of their fresh produce offerings.

Product scoring algorithms used to help the Fresno, Calif.-based RJO’s customers order produce based on a variety of quality attributes for each commodity – including size, color, brix and overall appearance – have been carefully studied and modified to allow adjustments to specific quality measures, which are in turn stored in RJO’s database that can be accessed by customers using its Bird Dog app.

“Our customers establish the baseline [by determining] the quality attributes that are most important to them and their consumers,” noted RJO Produce’s Rob O’Rourke.

RJO’s retail customers then assess and rank the key attributes of importance via a “Bird Dog Quality” (BDQ) score, which O’Rourke says reflects the key attributes determined by the customer to measure their desired quality against the market and over time. In turn, he adds, BDQ scores “will let them know who has the best product, based on their goals.”

The new process, O’Rourke continues, “Brings the Bird Dog app and BDQ scores full-circle by providing unbiased, quantifiable quality information” based on unique quality specifications. Accordingly, buyers no longer need to rely solely on a “best available” quality characterization to have the assurance they are seeking to maintain the specific value proposition of their produce offerings.